Darryl Sterdan, Special to Postmedia Network

National music writer Darryl Sterdan is old enough to know better. He lives mostly in his head but also on his couch in Winnipeg, where he listens to music, thinks about music, writes about music and obsesses over music 24/7/365. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But he really will have to get that couch cleaned one of these days.

It’s that time again — time to choose the most memorable CDs of the year. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t hear every album that came out in 2016. But I did listen to more than 1,000. Here are the ones I’ll still be listening to next year:

Jack White follows his own path. Even on anthologies. Instead of your standard hits and highlights set, the singer-guitarist takes an alternate route, collecting unplugged fare from his White Stripes, Raconteurs and solo albums.

It’s a bleak world after all. Especially in contemporary R&B. Coming on the glum heels of fellow countrymen like The Weeknd and Drake, Montreal-based Londoner Alex Fleming strikes a pensive pose on his debut full-length, surrounding his quavering falsetto and lyrical angst with atmospherically cold, starkly stylized slow jams. Music for lonely nights.